I didn't get much interest either! http://barnsleyfc.org.uk/threads/saturday-afternoon-radio-4-at-2-30pm.283110/
oh happy memories of other schools visiting our St Helens comp researching Kes. Their stay was usually short cut.
a lot was filmed in Hoyland common...where I lived at the time.Every time I watch it its a fantastic nostalgia trip.
I saw a production at the Playhouse last year with only 2 actors. £30 & it was ballax. The original film, or the book for me. Brian Glover was a wrestling partner of my dad at Brian's dad's gym at the Junction back in the day. He was a teacher in Hoyland and was roped into the film by Ken Loach. Colin Welland was a superb actor in that. Great film, that can't be surpassed. My mates also bumped into Dai Bradley at the play off final, still a Barnsley supporter.
It’s a brilliant film. But I find it very difficult to watch. It’s so bleak - but the thing is, it’s a true reflection of how things were back then. The film very much parallels my own school days. Mining, council estate, chaotic school - and then distancing myself from all that through the love of wild birds. And because the film brings back memories of how dark, uneducated and bleak it was then it makes the film very difficult to watch. Me and my mates from school will have been wandering the woods and fields around Wentworth Woodhouse looking for kestrels nests at the same time as this film was being made.
just read the book on my holidays absolutely brilliant as i was reading the words the pictures from the film appeared in my head
Great book, great film. I always thought the book was even bleaker than the film. Thankfully the Americans never got their hands on it... these are from IMDB: SPOILER ALERT "Disney were interested in buying the film rights to Barry Hines novel but insisted on changing the ending so that the kestrel lived. Hines wouldn't agree to that, so passed on a potentially lucrative arrangement to preserve the integrity of his story." and "American distributors wanted the end of the film to be happy one, which included an idea where Billy got a job in a zoo."
I love watching the film as it was quite close to reflecting real life for many of us of a certain age. However, even on reflection it was many things but it wasn’t bleak. It’s just how it was for many.